


The End is the Beginning

by Tenoko1



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Comatose Dean, Fix-It, Fluff, Gen, Series finale speculations, Team Free Will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-10-20 14:57:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10665027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tenoko1/pseuds/Tenoko1
Summary: Someone sent me a series finale idea of Dean waking up after a heart attack and completely changing his life to something healthy and stable.To which I made a counter offer of Dean waking up in the hospital from a coma and having memories versus information slamming into each other like a high speed head on collision he can't wrap his mind around, wondering instead if it's not a Djinn dream, because how could his entire world be shifted in only a matter of months?





	The End is the Beginning

He wakes up staring at a hospital ceiling and machinery recording his vitals. Sam's folded in a chair asleep, and Cas- who he blinks in surprise at trying to negotiate his memory with the sight of him in regular clothing- is reading a book like he has nothing else to do.

Dean scrambles to try and remember what the hell happened to land him in the hospital, but can’t, thoughts sluggish and intangible. He strains to swallow, throat like parchment and makes a raspy call to Castiel, who is by his side in an instant with a shout to Sam to wake up, one hand slamming the Nurse button as he does, because “Dean! You’re awake!”

“What happened?” he croaks in a whisper.

The answer is delayed by Sam, and Dean has a horrible moment of watching his brother start to cry because Dean’s okay, and Sam can’t even make words, ugly crying into Dean’s shoulder as he’s folded over the bed to hug his brother and babble apologies that don’t make any sense, “-but I got him and I’m sorry it took so long and oh God Dean, we thought you were going to die and Cas was dead and you weren’t breathing and oh God you’re awake.”

Nurses and doctors pour in and Dean has no clearer answer than he did before on what is even going on, but he’s poked and prodded and tested and examined, and listens to medical babble while Sam wipes at his face, he and Cas nodding diligently to the doctors as they explain potential symptoms, like memory loss, the need for intense and ongoing physical rehabilitation?? to get Dean back to normal strength, that he’s going to sleep a lot in order to promote healing, the slow reintroduction to solid foods??? and the expected recovery time for something like this being over the course of months.

Dean can feel himself flagging, already worn down and tired, wondering if the nurses put something in his IV while he was distracted with all the chaos and noise around him. He still hasn't gotten any answers. He barely manages to gain their attention, before drifting under.

When he wakes, the light in the room has changed, but the room's occupants has the new addition of Bobby, who has to wipe his eyes and gruffly tells Dean it’s about damn time he woke up and stopped keeping the world waiting, and Dean is so flummoxed he can’t he form words to try and make sense of _what the hell???_

“ _What happened?_ ”

“Lucifer,” Sam explains. “He beat you into a coma before I could stop him.”

“He- what? But we- Sammy, we locked him up.”

“Right, both he and Michael are locked in the Cage now.”

“Michael got out, too?”

They all exchange looks of confusion, Castiel slowly shaking his head.

“No, Dean. Remember? Michael was never in the Cage, he needed to take you as vessel and settled for your brother Adam?”

Dean gapes, looking at all their faces, and shaking his head, “Are you talking about Stull Cemetery?” Nods from all. “Dude, that was, like, what? Eight years ago? I remember _that_ ,” he says with an eye roll. “What happened with him getting out the second- or apparently _third_ time?”

They all look at each other in confusion, and creeping exhaustion makes Dean impatient, jabbing a finger at them as he talks. “Civil war in Heaven against Raphael, the Leviathan getting loose from Purgatory- in which Bobby should be _dead_ , so explain how you’re _not_ \- then me and Cas spent a damn _year_ in Purgatory, then Naomi brainwashing and controlling Cas for months on end.. what happened after that? Oh, fucking Metatron forcing all the angels to fall and Cas becoming human after he stole his grace for the spell. Kevin and later Charlie fucking dying. Mark of freaking Cain, _me_ dying and becoming a demon, then finding a cure, which released Amara, God’s _freaking sister,_ and then all the bullshit with the British Men of Letters and Lucifer getting out and his Nephilim baby with Kelly– and why are you all looking at me like that?”

“Dean…” Sam looks worriedly at Cas, who shrugs. His attention returns to Dean with a careful shake of his head, and Dean has a moment to marvel at how much younger he looks. He’d thought it was grief earlier, but it’s startling now, his hair cut shorter than Sam likes it. “None of that happened. I don’t- I mean, I’m not sure how you thought– Lucifer put you in the hospital in Stull Cemetary, before I was able to regain control and force him out and into the portal. And the Chuck-” he hesitates, eye darting back and forth as he tries to explain, “this won’t make much sense, but Chuck is actually _God_ , Dean. In disguise.”

Dean stares like he grew antlers. “I am aware, thank you. Made us pancakes and nearly died helping us fight Amara, then both of them took off together.”

“He must have been able to hear our conversations,” Cas tells Sam, “and his subconscious tried to fold them into whatever he was dreaming.” He looks at Dean. “Dean, Chuck showed up at the cemetery, brought Bobby and I back, but your injuries he couldn’t interfere with since comas fall under free will and the decisions of the mind, but you were immediately brought here via Life Flight, and you’ve been here _since_ , Dean.”

His brows knit together, confusion and incredulousness warring on his features. “No. That’s… Cas, that was _years_ ago.”

Sam shakes his head. “No, Dean. It was six _months_ ago.” He gestures to the angel. “After Chuck gave Cas the option to become human or not, we both had to get jobs and an apartment so we could stay near you. We’ve been living here since you were admitted.”

Dean looks at Cas, startled. “You’re human? _Why_?” Because that doesn’t make sense, and Dean is sort of completely and utterly horrified to see the angel punished in such a way as to cast him out like that when he’d only done the right thing every time.

A flush spreads across Cas’ cheek, blue eyes sliding off to the side. “Because… my family is _here_.”

And that’s just- Dean can’t, and he says as much, shaking his head. “I- this… this is too much. I- that doesn’t make sense. I can’t, guys, I can’t.”

Sam nods, all earnestness and puppy dog eyes, and God almighty, it makes his kid brother look even younger. “No, Dean, I-I get it. we’re sorry for dumping all this on you. It’s a lot to take in.”

“I just… I need a minute,” he insists, and his brain hurts with the head on collision that is memories versus information, and any attempt to reconcile the two. Is it possible this is Djinn dream? Dammit, did he get infected _again_? But no, that wouldn’t explain this either.

He thinks he's going to be sick.

“Call the nurse and just give me a minute.“

They diligently leave, and the nurse- _fucking Charlie Bradbury in the damn flesh_ \- helps him sit up so he can dry heave into a ugly pink bucket until his stomach hurts and he’s got strain marks rising on his throat as she rubs his back, murmuring softly, and then hugging him once he's done and starts to cry, to break down in sobs, because Djinn dream or whatever the hell this is, she’s alive and here and the ache that had settled in her absence releases because he has missed her _so very much_ , and all of this is way too much, more than he can stand, and he’s just very tired from a life too hard for one person to bear.

But hours and days pass, and it seems no less real, no clues or giveaways this is some sort of supernatural event, and he knows he's not dead and in Heaven, because this isn't how heavens work.

Sam and Cas are _civilians_ , Cas having taken Bobby’s last name in order to be given a family history outside of Jimmy Novak, who’d long since gone to heaven. More over, they’re civilians with clearly no intention of getting back into hunting. Sam explaining that since they saved the world, he was washing his hands of it. They’d done what they’d set out to do: avenged Mom and corrected their mistakes, and the world shouldn’t- _couldn’t_ demand more of them than that.

The world is saved. Dean still has his family, with Cas- though he’d never let himself hope- staying as part of that, still staring too much or standing too close to Dean’s side for what is socially acceptable, but after years of feeling like he was drifting away, it’s a agonizing relief that leaves Dean wrapping him in a hug that lingers too long, whispering, “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Of course, Dean,” he answers, as reluctant as Dean to let go.

And Dean thinks he might die, because coma nightmares aside, even with the painful and strenuous physical therapy- Benny and Kevin are his physical therapists, like _what the hell_ \- Dean has everything, the world on a platter, and he’s so very happy. Years worth of nightmares don’t even matter anymore.

He’s _happy_.

\--

You're welcome.

**Author's Note:**

> Please be kind and don't forget to leave a comment, as they matter so very much.


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